Road pavers are known from practical use. They often have a tractor that pulls a so-called paving screed for smoothing and compacting of road surfaces. Modern paving screeds can be adapted to the respective conditions at the construction site due to a wide range of configuration possibilities. Due to the increasing automation of the operation of road pavers, detection of the respective screed configuration by the machine control system is of great interest. At the beginning, the usual practice consisted of having the respective screed configuration manually entered by the operating personnel of the road paver. However, as this is cumbersome and time-consuming, methods to simplify this process have been developed to an increasing extent.
EP 2 239 374 A1 discloses a road paver with a read-out device that can read out identification devices that are to be installed on additional components of the road paver. For example, parts of paving screeds are referred to as additional components. A screed system is known from US 2014/0294503 in which components of the screed are equipped with identification modules that can exchange data pertaining to the respective screed part with each other in case of coupling and finally transfer such data to a control unit.
Both systems require an identification device to be provided on each installed part. Due to this, either the acquisition of new parts with identification devices or the retrofit of identification devices becomes necessary. In addition, the data exchange can be prone to error, particularly in complex screed configurations with a very large number of parts. A solution for recording of the screed width is known from the EP 2 813 619 A1 of the applicant. There, the paving width of the paving screed between so-called lateral sliders should be measured directly. However, only the screed width can be recorded in this way. Other properties of the screed configuration cannot be recorded in this manner.